METH-LAB SEIZURES INCREASE SHARPLY IN KENTUCKY, INDIANA

State police in Indiana and Kentucky say the number of illegal
methamphetamine labs they dismantled last year soared over the total for 2001.

Indiana State Police took 732 labs apart last year, a jump of 34 percent
from the 546 labs in 2001. The number of labs dismantled by Kentucky State
Police nearly doubled, leaping to 297 last year from 156 in 2001.

And early indications this year point to even larger numbers.

''Here we are the (eighth) day of the month and we've already had 22
labs,'' said Sgt. Dave Phelps, an Indiana State Police Dismantling Team
leader in Indianapolis.

Illegal production of methamphetamine, a highly addictive drug that
produces an intense high, is a growing problem across the country. ''We are
receiving more methamphetamine submissions to the laboratory than we are
cocaine now,'' Phelps said.

Police say the problem has increased the cost of cleanup, police training
and damage to families and communities where the production and trafficking
occur.

The stepped-up law enforcement has forced some meth ''cooks'' to abandon
stationary home labs for operations in trailers and cars. An extreme
example surfaced last Saturday in the Western Indiana town of Bicknell, in
Knox County.

A state trooper driving along Main Street nearly ran into a bicyclist who
was riding out of an alley just after midnight. When the trooper, Brent
Clark, tried to stop the cyclist, 25year-old Adam Fisher of Bicknell, he
pedaled away through the alley.

A duffel bag that police say Fisher abandoned during the chase contained a
working methamphetamine lab and finished product, according to a state
police press release. ''Meth was actually being cooked inside the duffel
bag,'' Clark said.

Another officer, who tackled Fisher a short distance away, found that the
cyclist's gloves were covered with anhydrous ammonia, one of the key
ingredients in the methamphetamine recipe, police said.

Investigators say the problem is spreading throughout both states, but in
each of them the heaviest activity is in the western part of the state.
''The majority of them are west of I-75,'' said Lt. Lisa Rudzinski of the
Kentucky State Police.

In Indiana, the hotbed is in the southwest corner of the state, along U.S.
41 from Evansville to Terre Haute. A cluster of seven counties there
accounted for 251 of the 546 labs dismantled by state police in 2001.

Vigo County, with 67, had the most. Local officials took down 37 more labs,
bringing Vigo's 2001 total to 104.

The activity comes with a heavy social cost. Phelps recalled a meeting in
Vincennes late last year at which Knox County officials said 82 percent of
inmates there are in jail on methamphetamine-related charges. By contrast,
in 2001 Indiana State Police were called to dismantle only 14 meth labs in
seven Indiana counties close to Louisville -- Harrison, Floyd, Clark,
Scott, Jefferson, Washington and Jackson.

But for 2002, that total jumped to 25, 13 of them in Harrison County.

Floyd County had one in 2001 and four last year. Local figures in Kentucky
were not immediately available.

Phelps said he's at a loss to explain the regional variations in Indiana.
Kentucky's Rudzinski said the difference in her state might be attributable
to the higher concentration of farms in Western Kentucky.

Farmers use anhydrous ammonia as fertilizer.

State police dismantle most of the labs because dealing with the volatile
chemicals takes specialized training and equipment that most local
departments don't have. It's also expensive.

Rudzinski said each lab cleanup costs $3,100 to $150,000, depending on the
size of the lab and the amount of chemical contamination. The required
disposal vehicles cost $80,000 to $200,000, he said.

Police are asking farmers, merchants and the public to be vigilant for
signs of meth-lab activity. An important red flag is the purchase of large
amounts of over-the-counter cold remedies. The medicines are another
ingredient in the meth recipe.